Kitty Hawk, NC

Hey!! We made it to the Outer Banks, take two!! This time we are going to be full on tourists instead of hanging out in the hospital. Our hotel is in Kitty Hawk, where we drove out along a road with many bridges. We were happy to be back by the water!!

The Outer Banks are the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, and are known for the sand dunes, wind, surf, several shipwrecks and pirates treasures.

The wind and the sand of these barrier islands are why Orville and Wilbur Wright chose this place to test first their hangliders, and eventually the first motorized plane flight.

(The kids are tying to catch thier own air.....) This is "Big Hill" in "Kill Devil Hills".. the place where they would take off and try to get the most distance with the hangliders. To get credit for the first flight, it had to take off from the ground and land at the same altitude or higher, so they did that down on the flat part. It used to be pure sand, but sand dunes shift... so they've planted lots of grass to preserve it and erected a monument.

They had a nice museum and a metal replica outside.....

That front part of the plane is called the "elevator," its what makes the plane go up and down and was controlled by Orville or Wilbur's left hand. They hung on for dear life with thier right.

They made a lot of attempts and did a lot of problem solving to get the first plane off the ground!! A lot of the principals they figured out here are still used in modern planes (for example, the elevator functions are now on the wings.) And did you know Neil Armstrong took an original piece of the wood and cloth from this plane with him to the moon?

We owe these guys a lot!!

Now stay tuned for our own version of flying coming next!